This is just one of several dead and blown down burr oaks I found in an estate in County Fermanagh. It’s undoubtedly the best one and is over 4 feet in diameter at its widest point. I couldn’t resist coming home with all the trees and (with some difficulty) arranged for them to be felled, extracted and delivered to my yard. Now it’s time to get designing and creating.

Another of the long dead trees. Don’t be fooled, it’s bigger than it looks; the trunk is 12 feet long and weighs around two tons!

This big machine struggled to lift a few of the bigger logs, some of which had to be split down the centre to get them loaded.

This is the largest of the logs safely home, it weighs over four tons and unfortunately had to be split which limits the options when it comes to milling.

It’s always difficult to know just how to get the best out of a log, and what my requirements are going to be in the future. Also, with this timber there is the added difficulty of successfully drying heavily burred oak without incurring severe degrade.